Gary Cohn may return to White House

President Donald Trump arrives with Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn at the U.S. Capitol to meet with House Republicans ahead of their vote on the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" in Washington, on November 16, 2017.

Confirmation of the trip came on the heels of a lawsuit filed against California by the U.S. Department of Justice challenging a trio of state laws that offer protections to people living in the country illegally.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Trump takes input from a "diverse set of viewpoints", but added that "he knows it was his name on the ballot and he controls timing, content and tone".

Not only has Mr. Moon steered two headstrong, erratic adversaries away from a military conflict that could have been devastating for his nation, he has manoeuvred the Trump administration into pursuing negotiations that it has long resisted - but that he and his allies on South Korea's political left have long advocated.

Cohn announced his resignation earlier this week after publicly disagreeing with Trump's decision to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Trump's actions are unlikely to save jobs in either steel or aluminum, surely not in the long run, and they will cost jobs in all the companies that use either product in manufacturing goods.

"This is Gary Cohn's last meeting in the Cabinet", Trump said at the beginning of the meeting.

The President and Mr. Navarro share the same hard-line views on trade that were a centerpiece of President Trump's campaign. Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Trump who promoted the tariffs, has also been touted as a candidate for the top economic job, though he has said he is not in the running. Trump essentially blurted out the news at a White House meeting, blind-siding Cohn and the rest of the Administration team, in what amounted to a coup d'état by Ross and the protectionists.

Navarro, excluded from Trump's trip to Asia last fall, was sometimes seen walking the West Wing halls at night.

In recent days, Trump told advisers that his experience in business gave him an edge in deciding what to do on tariffs. But his aides, mindful of the difficulties they have had attracting people from outside the White House, have been looking internally.

Trump surprised the Pentagon a year ago with a series of tweets announcing he would reverse Obama-era policies allowing transgender individuals to serve in the armed forces.

Still, Trump continues to hold that  as he said at the 2016 Republican Convention  he "alone" can fix things.